Bactris brongniartii

Bactris (BAHK-triss) brongniartii (brong-nee-ART-tee)
Colombia. Photo-plantasdecolombia.org
Scientific Classification
Genus: Bactris (BAHK-triss) Species: brongniartii (brong-nee-ART-tee)
Synonyms
None set.
Native Continent
America
Morphology
Habit: Clustering & caespitose. Leaf type: Pinnate
Culture
Survivability index
Common names
Bango Palm. Bolivia: marayaú. Brazil: marajá, marajá de cacho, marajá pupunha, maraja'i (Arawete), maraja 'y (Ka'apor), maria-ci (Guajá), maria-wa (Guajá), tucum bravo. Colombia: cachepai montañero, cubarra, maradai. Guyana: bango palm. Peru: ñejilla. Venezuela: caña negra, cubarro, komora (Yanomami).

Habitat and Distribution

Throughout the Amazon region and adjacent areas in Colombia

Colombia. Photo-plantasdecolombia.org

(Antioquia, Bolívar, Caquetá, Chocó, Guaviare, Meta, Santander), Venezuela (Amazonas, Anzoátegui, Bolívar, Delta Amacuro), the Guianas, Peru (Loreto, Ucayali), Brazil (Acre, Amazonas, Maranhao, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sui, Pará, Rondonia, Roraima), and Bolivia (Beni, La Paz, Santa Cruz). Almost always on river margins or in seasonally inundated areas, at 10-350 m elevation. (Henderson, A.J., Bactris (Palmae) in Flora Neotropica Monographs 79. 2000)/Palmweb.

Description

Stems cespitose, often forming large clumps by rhizomes, 3-6 (-9) m tall, 3-6 (-8) cm in diam., spiny on internodes. Leaves 4-7; leaf spines somewhat clustered, yellowish or yellowish brown, black at base and apex, strongly flattened, spinulose and tomentose, to 4 cm long, dense on lateral surfaces of sheath and petiole, fewer on abaxial surface of rachis; sheath 30-60 cm long; ocrea to 15 cm long; petiole 10-70 (-120) cm long; rachis 0.9-1.7 m long; pinnae (10-) 23-34 per side, irregularly arranged in clusters of 2-5, spreading in different planes, linear-lanceolate, strongly plicate, with small spines on margins; middle pinnae 45-78 x 3.5-7 cm. Inflorescences interfoliar; peduncle 20-60 cm long, recurved, spiny; prophyll 10-40 cm long; peduncular bract 25-62 (-105) cm long, sparsely to moderately covered with flattened, yellowish spines to 2 cm long; rachis (3-) 8-15 cm long; rachillae 15-33, 15-30 cm long, densely covered at anthesis with brown, moniliform trichomes; triads irregularly arranged among paired or solitary staminate flowers; staminate flowers 3.5-4.5 mm long, deciduous; sepal lobes 1-2 mm long; petals 3.54 mm long; stamens 6; pistillode small or absent; pistillate flowers to 3 mm long; calyx 2.5-3 mm long, tubular; corolla 2.5-3 mm long, tubular; staminodial ring adnate basally to corolla;fruits 1.3-1.7 cm in diam., depressed-globose, purple-black, somewhat brown tomentose; mesocarp juicy; endocarp depressed-oblong or depressed-globose, the sterile pores displaced longitudinally; endocarp fibers free, numerous, with juice sacs attached; fruiting perianth with irregularly lobed calyx half as long as the irregularly lobed corolla, staminodial ring present. (Henderson, A.J., Bactris (Palmae) in Flora Neotropica Monographs 79. 2000)/Palmweb. Editing by edric.

Bactris brongniartii is diagnosed by its yellowish brown (black at base and apex), strongly flattened leaf spines, staminodial ring, and purple-black fruits. Synonymy was established by Wessels Boer (1965). The type has not been located at Paris, but the original description and more recent collections from Bolivia leave no doubt as to the application of the name. Bactris maraja, the name applied to this species by Wessels Boer (1965, 1988) and others, applies to another species (Henderson, 1995). Evandro Ferreira (pers. comm.) reports a hybrid between B. brongniartii and B. major in Acre, Brazil. (Henderson, A.J., Bactris (Palmae) in Flora Neotropica Monographs 79. 2000)/Palmweb.

Comments and Curiosities

Uses: The fruits are sold in local markets for the sweet mesocarp. Men and boys often lop off a fruit bunch while paddling to and and from their favorite fishing spots, heading off to hunt, or on their way to tend their crops. Women and girls also pick the fruits when they encounter groves of the palm near their crops.

A midsized palm to about 6 m (20 ft.) tall that produces slender, canelike, spiny trunks that are densely clustering and sometimes form extensive colonies. The plumose leaves have mildly clustering leaflets. It is widespread and common over most of Amazonian South America in wet, seasonally flooded areas. (RPS.com)